Ab urbe condita

The[*](Agrarian Proposals.) fomenters of the disturbance were Sp. Maecilius, who was tribune of the plebs for the fourth time, and M. Metilius, tribune for the third time; both had been elected in their absence.

They brought forward a measure providing that the territory taken from an enemy should be assigned to individual owners. If this were passed the fortunes of a large number of the nobility would be confiscated.

For as the City itself was founded upon foreign soil, it possessed hardly any territory which had not been won by arms, or which had become

private property by sale or assignment beyond what the plebeians possessed.[*](Only land fit for garden tillage or fruit trees was assigned to individual owners, i. e., plebeians. The forests, wastes, and pastures were State lands, i. e., occupied (not owned) by the patricians. As only land for tillage was allotted, a common pasture was absolutely necessary.) There seemed every prospect of a bitter conflict between the plebs and the patricians.

The consular tribunes, after discussing the matter in the senate and in private gatherings of patricians, were at a loss what to do, when Appius Claudius, the grandson of the old decemvir and the youngest senator present, rose to speak.

He is represented as saying that he was bringing from home an old device well known to his house. His grandfather, Appius Claudius, had pointed out to the senate the only way of breaking down the power of the tribunes, namely, through the interposition of their colleagues' veto.

Men who had risen from the masses were easily induced to change their opinions by the personal authority of the

leaders of the State if only they were addressed in language suitable to the occasion rather than to the rank of the speaker. Their feelings changed with their fortunes.